


time and space

by youcouldmakealife



Series: it's a setup [16]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, YCMAL 'verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “Nothing to be sorry for,” Joey says. No one has a fucking thing to be sorry for, which honestly makes the whole situation worse.
Relationships: OMC/OMC
Series: it's a setup [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669567
Comments: 30
Kudos: 307





	time and space

Scratch is being weird again, and Joey’s honestly getting pretty sick of it. It’s not that Scratch lied in his text — he _is_ being weird, and he _will_ see Joey at practice, but while Joey does see Scratch at practice, there’s a lot of space between him and Joey the whole time. Space that Joey doesn’t want or need right now. Space that is in fact the opposite of what Joey wants or needs right now. 

They’re not put together on any of the drills, but usually during breaks Scratch will gravitate toward Joey, and he doesn’t today. And not only did they not carpool in like usual, but by the time Joey’s out of the shower Scratch has disappeared, Trigger giving him a shrug when Joey asks where he went.

“He was being weird today,” Trigger says, which is a relief since it means he isn’t just being weird with Joey. And he must be acting _really_ weird for Trigger to notice.

“Did you ask him about it?” Joey asks hopefully.

“Yeah,” Trigger says.

“Did he say anything?” Joey says.

“He says he’s fine,” Trigger says with a scowl. “Why’s he being weird?”

“I have no clue, buddy,” Joey says.

“I don’t like it,” Trigger says. “I’m going to find out what it is.”

“ _Please_ ,” Joey says. “And if you do, tell me what’s up because it’s bugging the hell out of me.” 

“Will do,” Trigger says. “Willy’s hovering behind you like a creepy vampire.”

“I’m not hovering like a creepy vampire,” Willy says from right behind Joey, but when Joey turns around he can see it, Willy dressed in all black and absolutely hovering. “Did you want to—”

“Not in front of Trigger,” Joey says.

“Not what in front of Trigger?” Trigger asks curiously, but thankfully doesn’t follow them when Willy tags after Joey into the hall, probably because he’s still got half his gear on.

“I don’t actually want to talk about this, by the way,” Joey says.

“Okay,” Willy says. “Just — know he feels really bad, okay?”

Joey’s not surprised — Owen’s a nice guy, so he probably feels guilty even though it makes no sense to.

“Why should he?” Joey asks. “It’s not his fault.”

“I know, but—” Willy says.

“I don’t really want to talk about this with you, Willy,” Joey repeats.

“Okay,” Willy says. “Totally respect that.”

“Thanks,” Joey says.

“Sorry, Money,” Willy says.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Joey says. No one has a fucking thing to be sorry for, which honestly makes the whole situation worse.

“Just — one last thing?” Willy asks.

“What,” Joey says.

“If you don’t want him to come around after wins anymore, and you don’t want to say that to him directly,” Willy says. “I can do it, if you need me to. He’ll understand, and I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable or—”

“No, it’s —” Joey says. “It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

He is not actually sure it’ll be fine, but they’ve got the upcoming roadie to blunt the hurt a bit, and it’s not fair to freeze Owen out, especially since Joey isn’t the only one on the Scouts he hangs out with when he comes out. The last thing in the world Joey needs is Trigger bluntly asking in front of the entire team why his music recommendations have stopped or something, so that Joey gets to confirm that he’s exactly as undateable as they already suspected.

He sounds bitter in his own head. He’s not impressed with himself. He only got two days to have a pity party when Zach outed him, he definitely doesn’t get to have a two day pity party just because he’s a pathetic undateable — fucking _shut_ up, Munroe.

It is way harder to stop horrible, intrusive thoughts when he doesn’t have Scratch telepathically figuring out he’s doing it — or maybe Joey’s face is just obvious — and elbowing him out of them.

Joey suspects it is in fact that his face is obvious, because Willy’s giving him this horrifyingly sympathetic look.

“It’s fine,” Joey repeats firmly.

*

It’s fine. It’s totally fine that Joey goes back alone to an empty apartment, no Scratch already lounging, it’s totally fine that he eats a perfectly healthy meal for lunch and no one is bitching about it being bland, and he gets to watch a couple episodes of Riverdale with zero people mocking him for it. Honestly it’s not even bad in a fun way anymore, though, just bad, and he turns it off halfway through the second episode. Considers texting Scratch, but he clearly needs a bit of space right now, and even if Joey doesn’t like it, he’ll respect that. Should text Owen, since he said he’d text him tomorrow, and it’s tomorrow, and he doesn’t want to leave Owen feeling guilty over something he shouldn’t feel guilty about. 

_hey_ Joey texts, then, quickly, _sorry about yesterday_ because the ‘hey’ by itself looks awful sitting under the ‘On my way!’ Owen sent him before the brunch of nightmares. He goes to finish packing, because he left off before he finished his laundry, has everything ready except his toiletries, electronics, which get packed right before he leaves, when his phone buzzes with a reply from Owen.

_Nothing to be sorry about at ALL. It’s really good to hear from you._ Owen has sent, which is simultaneously a good response, because at least it looks like Owen still wants to be friends — which, of course he does, because that’s all he wanted in the first place — but also makes Joey feel bad because did Owen think he wouldn’t? 

_sorry I stuck you with the bill_ , Joey texts, which seems like a less embarrassing thing to apologize for than ‘sorry for dramatically bouncing because I had a bad case of the feelings. And those feelings _suck_.’.

_Considering you pay all the time I definitely owed you a meal or three_ , Owen says. _Also I don’t think I’ve ever paid for a drink after a win so there’s that._

Maybe they’ll just — be normal now? Mutually pretend yesterday never happened? That’d honestly not be the worst thing — the last thing Joey wants is Owen acting all ginger and skittish around him, like he’ll hurt Joey’s feelings, or worse, like Joey is going to press the issue. Still, it hurts, the idea it was so easy to dismiss that a single day later it’s back to the status quo.

_we’ll prob clinch on the road but I hope you come out for more free drinks when we get back_ , Joey texts him before he can second guess himself.

_Wouldn’t miss it._ , Owen says, along with a smiley, and Joey plugs in his phone to charge — he’s got a tendency to forgot both to charge his phone _and_ to bring his charger before flights, and there’s now a Stop Mooching, Money rule, so he’s doing his best to grow as a person. A person who remembers to charge his phone like the grown-up he is.

His grown-up ass watches more shitty TV because there’s honestly nothing else to do. He could go for a run or something, he guesses. Feels restless in a way that a run would probably help, but he doesn’t, just sits on his couch trying not to feel sorry for himself because he is past his feeling sorry for himself allowance, and absolutely failing at not feeling sorry for himself.

He feels even more sorry for himself when Scratch opts to sit by Trigger on the plane. That’s not actually unusual: Scratch divvies up sitting beside Joey and sitting beside Trigger pretty evenly, Joey only getting the edge because sometimes Trigger puts up a ‘stay away’ forcefield so strong that not only will no one sit beside him, no one will sit in the seats _near_ him if they can avoid it. It still stings.

Joey sits by himself on the flight, watches more Riverdale in like, revenge, but if it’s revenge on anyone it’s probably himself at this point.

*

They don’t have to wait long to clinch the President’s Trophy, do it in decisive fashion the very second it becomes possible. They’ve got another game the next day, a flight to get on, so there isn’t any celebration, really — well, there is, in that the guys who usually fall asleep the second they’re wheels up aren’t sleeping, the guys who usually read or watch movies aren’t doing that either, everyone milling around exchanging back slaps and good cheer and handing around the big shiny trophy. They won it last year too, it’s not new to any of them except the new guys, but a big fat ‘Best Fucking Team In the League’ trophy doesn’t exactly get old. Joey gives it an affectionate pat when Shithead walks by with it, sees Scratch do the same thing a few aisles up.

Once they hit the ground it’s straight to the hotel, bed, which is fine since everyone knows the party’s coming when they get home. In the meantime, even though winning won’t do anything to increase their chances — they’ve got the playoff spot, the division, the conference, the _league_ all tied up, there’s nothing left to win until the playoffs start — they’re all going to play all out anyway, because there’s a reason they’re back to back best in the league: they’re a bunch of competitive fuckers.

Joey hits the twenty goal milestone for the first time that night, which feels good, though Scratch keeping his distance from him when he gets all his congratulatory back slaps puts a bit of a damper on it. Okay, a lot of a damper on it.

The team goes out that night, even a lot of the guys who don’t generally — three days until their next game, and yeah, the big party isn’t here yet, but they’ve got to get some of that celebratory spirit out. Scratch is there, but he’s sitting with Trigger well away from where Joey’s landed between Brinks and Marty, and everything feels kind of — wrong.

_if I did something you really need to tell me so I can say sorry or fix it_ , Joey texts. He sees Scratch get it, sees him glance Joey’s way after reading it, all tied up knots when Scratch ducks his head, curls falling into his eyes as he types the response — he needs a haircut — which takes way too long to come considering how short it is. 

_you didnt_ , Scratch texts.

It’s ten minutes later when another one comes, _I just need a little solo time right now to work stuff out dont worry_

Joey wants to point out that Scratch doesn’t seem to need to be solo from _Trigger_ , but by the time he’s written that out, is thinking about whether it sounds bitchy or whatever, Trigger’s drifted to another table and Scratch is nowhere to be found, so maybe he does need it, just figured Trigger would leave him be and Joey wouldn’t which — fair, honestly, because if something’s up with Scratch Joey wants to know about it, even if it isn’t something he can fix.

“You look way too depressed for someone who hit their twenty goal mark tonight,” Willy says, and Joey frowns up at him — Willy hit his in like, twenty _games_ , he’s doing his whole god speaking to mortals thing and it’s rude — but since Willy accompanies that comment with a free drink, Joey can’t be too angry about it. The man knows his stuff — accompany annoying statements with free drinks and you probably aren’t going to be called out. The man knows his stuff in general.

Joey thinks.

If anyone’s nosy enough and charming enough and persistent enough to wheedle things out of Scratch, it’s Willy. Joey feels kind of bad aiming that nuclear missile Scratch’s way, especially when Scratch said he needed to work things out himself, but like — that’s helping, right? Willy’s a helper. If anyone can give Scratch sage advice about dealing with whatever he’s dealing with, it’s Willy. And if what Scratch is dealing with, is, in fact, a very belated freakout that like, being around Joey will make people think he’s gay, well, Joey trusts Willy to call him out on it and tell him to stop being an asshole. 

“Scratch is being weird,” Joey finally says.

“Yeah,” Willy says. “I noticed.”

“He’s avoiding me,” Joey says. 

“He’s avoiding everyone,” Willy says.

“Yeah,” Joey says. “But he’s avoiding _me_.”

“And you’re not included in everyone?” Willy asks.

“ _No_ ,” Joey says.

“Well,” Willy says. “Fair enough, honestly. What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t want you to do anything,” Joey says. “I just don’t want him to think he can’t talk about it with me. Or like. Anyone.”

“You’re asking me to snoop, aren’t you,” Willy says.

“No,” Joey says. “Just like —”

“Ask him about it until he breaks?” Willy asks.

“No—” Joey says.

But yes that is what he is asking for.

“Okay,” Willy says, clapping Joey’s shoulder. “Leave it to me, Money.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” Joey says. “For the record.”

“You absolutely did,” Willy says. “Uncle Willy’s on the case.”

“That sounds weird and creepy, for the record,” Joey says.

“I’m sorry, did someone who just ask me for a favor call me weird and creepy?” Willy asks.

“I didn’t ask you for a favor,” Joey maintains. 

“I was going to ask anyway,” Willy says. “Only one thing anyone’s allowed to focus on now.”

“What?” Joey asks.

“Playoffs,” Willy says, with the biggest frown possible. “Are you not ready to focus? Is this going to be a problem?”

“Soon as they start I’m dialled in, you know that,” Joey says.

“You better be,” Willy says darkly. He’s a little intense about playoffs. Which is saying something, considering they’re all a little intense about playoffs. A little being ‘probably disturbing to an outside point-of-view’. But Willy’s the worst — best? — of them.

Joey leaves after his Willy drink — no man leaves a free drink behind — slows on his way to his room, stalling in front of the room three doors down from his he saw Scratch come out of before breakfast that morning, exchanged a weird, awkward wave with him when he did. Something’s wrong, and Scratch has always been there for Joey when shit goes wrong for him. Joey hates the idea of that not being mutual.

He stands there for too long, debating whether to knock, but Scratch may already be in bed, and even if he isn’t — if he doesn’t want to talk, he doesn’t want to talk. Joey has to respect that. So he’ll respect that.

But he’ll respect that while simultaneously hoping that Willy figures out what the hell is going on.


End file.
